I was over in California a few weeks back and visited NEC Electronics
(NECEL). They're the US arm of the of NEC and one of the main places
where MIPS stuff happens.
Some people at NECEL are keen to see Linux up and running on some of
their products, which might include evaluation boards and PDAs, with
CPUs from the tiny ones used in hand-helds (Vr41x1) to relatively big
ones being touted for high-end embedded (Vr54xx).
At this stage NECEL's support is likely to be moral rather than
financial; but they should be good for loan hardware and access to
documentation - which is often a problem with companies as large and
complex as NEC. And if pilot work is successful, they might want to
spend money later.
My company's (Algorithmics') role is probably going to be subdued due
to massive overcommitments... but
1. we subscribe to this mailing list
2. we're interested in getting Linux running on our own hardware,
which is not too different
3. we're MIPS and OS kernel gurus who may be able to offer
some technical support
4. as Windows CE "systems integrators" we may be able to provide
some help with bootstrapping WinCE-orientated machines.
I'd like to know whether something like this might inspire a few
volunteers who have the necessary skill, enthusiasm and time to spare.
Dominic Sweetman
Algorithmics Ltd
dom@algor.co.uk